


December's Joys

by Smash_50



Series: Five Years Later [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Light Angst, Self-Indulgent, Snowball Fight, Takes place five years after Forces, Team Dark Holiday Special
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28371975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smash_50/pseuds/Smash_50
Summary: The winter holidays stopped being the magical time of year that they used to be, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to celebrate.A Team Dark Holiday Special.
Relationships: Ambiguous or Implied Relationships - Relationship, E-123 Omega & Rouge the Bat & Shadow the Hedgehog, Everyone & Everyone
Series: Five Years Later [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077878
Comments: 14
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

It never ceased to surprise Shadow how quickly the people of the future jumped from holiday to holiday.

Granted, he wasn’t one to go into stores very often 一 large, crowded places usually didn’t sit well with him 一 but Rouge said that their fridge and pantry were empty and that she could use the extra hands, so the extra hands he would be.  Rouge might have been able to lift almost two tons on her own, but shopping bags were tricky business. A few runs to the store and back, complete with ripped bags and broken seals and smashed eggs had taught him that lesson in full.

All the same, the last he had been in the grocery store, he had seen all kinds of Halloween decorations. He had rather enjoyed them, finding the aesthetic to be pleasing and the idea of finding joy in horror to be a charming concept. Shadow figured that everyone could use a little more joy in their lives.

He figured Maria would think the same.

But the fake cobwebs and plastic skulls were all gone now, replaced with bright lights and fake snow and tinsel. Shadow knew that the next big calendar holiday was Christmas, but November was only half-over. 

It perplexed him.

“Ah!”

A small delighted cry from Rouge caught his attention, and he looked over to his coworker-turned-best friend-turned-roommate. She was further down the aisle, fingers reaching out to a display of flat cardboard decorated with the same designs of reindeer and lights and the big man with the beard. Little numbers were spread over the item, and as Shadow stepped closer, he saw that 24 square perforations surrounded the numbers, evenly distributing them across whatever the thing was.

“What’s that?” he prompted, and Rouge glanced at him, giving him a small grin.

Odd. He would have expected her to make more of a reaction. Such restraint from the bat seemed almost… sheepish?

“It’s an advent calendar, hon.” Rouge picked one off of the display and held it in both hands, looking at it fondly. “You open one door for every day of December until the 25th, and get a little chocolate as a reward.”

Shadow nodded, waiting for the rest of the explanation, and at the drawn-out silence, Rouge glanced at him once more, her smile faltering as she saw him waiting. She sighed, shifting her weight over to one leg. “These were a big part of my childhood. We didn’t get much, but these were cheap and usually kept us happy… especially if the 25th ended up being a letdown.”

Ah right. Rouge’s less than abundant childhood. She practically never brought it up 一 “The past is past, sweetheart, it doesn’t matter when we have today and tomorrow to take advantage of!” 一 and it had taken a long time for her to open up about it. Shadow knew that level of trust was special, a testament to how much they had been through together.

Warmth stirred in his chest as he glanced over at the advent calendar. “Are you going to get it?”

Rouge hummed, pursing her lips, but her wings drooped, and Shadow frowned. That meant that she was going to start convincing herself not to get it.

“Not much of a point anymore, right?”  _ There it was.  _ “I mean, we’re trying to eat healthier and--”

“Just get it,” Shadow interrupted. “One chocolate a day isn’t going to destroy you, and it’s not like money is a problem for us.”

Rouge looked back down at the treat in her hands, eyes narrowing as her innate stubbornness was undoubtedly hounding her with possible arguments against everything, and Shadow’s own stubbornness flared to fight it back.

Like it or not, they were leaving the store with an advent calendar today.

“I’ve never had one,” he pointed out. “And if it’s a tradition… well, didn’t you say I needed to try to be more festive?”

Rouge perked up almost instantaneously at that, flashing him a mischievous smile. “Well if that’s the case,” she declared, reaching out her free hand to the display, “how can I refuse? Let’s both get one, and it can be our stupid little tradition.”

Shadow almost smiled at that. “The best kind?”

Rouge grinned at him, dumping two of the cheap, chocolate-bearing treats into their cart, and Shadow really did smile when he saw genuine happiness and excitement in his friend’s eyes. “The absolute best,” Rouge corrected him, pushing their cart along with a small skip in her step.

Shadow rolled his eyes but followed behind. “Right.”

It looked like Rouge really would need the extra hands, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

December had finally hit, and Shadow found himself in a general store after Omega requested some AA batteries.

" **WHEN I HOLD THEM LIKE THIS,"** the robot had explained, gingerly gripping one of them between his metallic thumb and forefinger, " **IT BRIEFLY SLOWS DOWN MY PROCESSORS IN AN ENJOYABLE AND STRANGE WAY. I AM ALSO ABLE TO SHOCK PEOPLE, WHICH I HAVE DEEMED TO BE HILARIOUS."**

Shadow had his concerns, but he was far from the technological genius that his grandfather had been, and if Omega wanted to get robo-drunk or robo-high, then so be it. He trusted him to know his limits…

...Kind of.

As he looked around for the batteries, he couldn't help but notice once again that it looked as if the holiday season had bombarded the aisles of the general store in a way that was borderline obnoxious. Every year it seemed to be the same things, the same green and red flashing lights and the same songs that wormed their way into his head with the intent to stay. Even after eleven months without them, it always felt like he had heard them all just last week whenever they played.

It got more than a little irritating, but he never complained. No point when the songs wouldn't go away and Rouge would only tease him and call him a Scrooge.

His eyes roamed over the signs marking out the type of stock on the shelves, but a few once-overs and a quick check in a section that sounded promising 一 _Household Goods_ unfortunately only held things like trash bags and pest spray 一 yielded no results.

"Must be behind the counter," Shadow figured, turning around to approach the registers. As he turned around one aisle, though, a splash of blue and white caught his attention, breaking the monotony of red and green.

It was a small area, dedicated to a handful of items that brought memories rushing back to the forefront of his mind; candles, chocolate coins, and a few bits and pieces that all had the words 'Happy Hanukkah!' printed on them.

It was all cheap and kind of simple, but all the same…

"Just like on the ARK…" Shadow murmured to himself, his eyes roving over all the merchandise, his hand reaching out without a second thought to the small bags of gelt, plucking a few up. As he reached for a cheap dreidel, he frowned at the thought that Hanukkah got such a small display while Christmas got everything else, but it had been much the same on the ARK. Still, as he brought everything he wanted up to the registers and the cashier scanned it all, his mind was still trying to dig up every last detail he could remember.

"Is that everything?" the girl behind the counter asked, jolting him from his cascading memories.

Shadow blinked, bringing himself back to reality, looking from the pile of things on the counter to the shelves behind the register, and remembered his reason for coming in the first place.

"Do you have some AA batteries back there?"

"Yes we do! Just give me a moment and I'll be right back!"

She sounded exhausted. Shadow wasn't surprised. He made sure to thank her as she handed him his bag and his receipt.

"Thank you," she said, sounding a mite more genuine in her happiness. "And um… happy Hanukkah!"

The hedgehog nodded at her as he walked off, glancing down at his bag, holding a pack of batteries, a dreidel, and an absurd amount of chocolate coins. "Happy Hanukkah," he whispered.

* * *

"That's a lot more than one pack of batteries," Rouge remarked as Shadow set his bag down. "Stocking up in case Omega goes through them all too fast?"

"No I…"

The bag was out of his hands the next second, and teal eyes grew wide. For a moment, Rouge was silent as she pulled one sack of gelt out of the bag, but the question in her eyes faded as she found the dreidel next. Her nonplussed look shifted into something much softer.

"It's been a long time since I've seen one of these," she remarked, much to Shadow's surprise. She plucked the wooden top from the rest of his purchases, turning it around in her hands, and glanced over at him. "Did you want to play?"

"You know how?" Shadow demanded, and Rouge giggled at him.

"My favorite aunt was Jewish," she explained, looking back at the dreidel and regarding it nostalgically. "My dad's brother's wife. I didn't get to see her much, but when I did, I loved it. I like to think that I was one of her favorites, too."

Shadow listened in respectful silence. Rouge had never talked about this aunt before, and he wanted to know whatever she was willing to tell him.

"Anyways, that's not really important," Rouge dismissed, a typical thing she did when talking about something that got too personal. It seemed as though that was all Shadow was going to get today. "I remember playing dreidel with her a few times, but it's been years. All I really remember is…" She turned the top in her hand until she settled on one of the sides. "This is the one where you get everything in the pot."

Shadow looked at the letter painted on the side. "You're right. That's 'gimmel'."

"Gimmel!" Rouge echoed, a grin on her face, and the sound brought back memories of another voice cheering the same, and blue eyes glinting in the light as she brought the coins toward herself, looking lively and healthy and…

"So does that mean you know how to play?"

Rouge's question brought him back to reality, and Shadow's gaze went back to the pile of coins on the table. "It's been a few years," he admitted, "but mostly, yes. Most of the scientists celebrated Christmas, but some were Jewish. One of them, Dr. Schwartz, was very nice to me and Maria. He answered our questions about his holidays and let us participate in some of the traditions. Dreidel was our favorite."

There was a short silence following his explanation, wherein both mobians revisited old, cherished memories before looking back at each other.

"We're playing," Rouge announced, starting to open some of the sacks of gelt, and Shadow sat beside her, a small smile playing on his lips.

It was time to make some new memories.

* * *

"Aaaaaaand gimmel!" Rouge sang, drawing the pot over to her side while Shadow groaned.

"I swear you're cheating," he growled.

Rouge clicked her tongue, resting her chin on one hand. "Now now, Shadow. Luck isn't cheating."

"It might as well be when it's you."

Rouge only winked at him, and it was that moment that Omega decided to make his entrance.

 **"QUERY: WHAT'S THE HOLDUP?"** he demanded, scanning the two lifeforms in front of him, followed by the table which was still covered in the pieces of their game, and a few small balls of golden foil from winnings consumed. His ocular lenses went into hard focus, giving the impression that his eyes had narrowed. **"ARE YOU ENGAGING IN FUN WITHOUT ME?"**

"Sorry Omega," Rouge apologized, reaching over to pat him on his metallic arm. "We got a teensy bit caught up in the moment. Turns out that dreidel is a nostalgic game for the both of us."

Shadow frowned as Omega remained silent, reaching back into the bag for the pack of batteries that had been his reason for going out in the first place. "I have these for you," he offered, sliding them across the table in his own gesture of apology, but Omega's silence persisted, with only the faint hum of his engine making a noise. Shadow drew his hand away, certain that he had made Omega annoyed or disappointed or angry or whatever the robotic equivalent of those were, until Omega sat down at the table as well.

 **"DATA DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. CREATING FILE: DREIDEL. CATEGORY: GAMES."** Omega's eye lights dimmed and then brightened again, looking akin to a blink. **"SHADOW. ROUGE IS KICKING YOUR BUTT. SPIN MORE CAREFULLY."**

Rouge immediately burst out laughing as Shadow crossed his arms. "Calculating spins is cheating, Omega," he warned as the robot tried to pick up the dreidel by the top. Unfortunately, the robot's fingers weren't made with dexterity in mind, and the dreidel slipped through his grasp a few times as Rouge brought her giggles back under control.

"Okay boys," she announced, standing up. "I'm gonna go look for something, so you can play without me for a bit."

"Omega can't eat chocolate," Shadow deadpanned as the top slipped from Omega's fingers again.

"Play for batteries," Rouge replied, already on her way out of the room.

What an obvious solution. Shadow resisted the urge to smack his own forehead and instead watched Omega try and fail to pick up the toy a few more times before the robot found more luck gripping it around the middle.

Shadow fully expected Omega to be running probabilities, calculating spins to grow the pot and weighing it against the probability of Shadow winning, before calculating the correct amount of spin to land on gimmel, but it seemed as though Omega had taken Shadow's comment about cheating to heart, and their games ran normally.

 **"ARE YOU HAVING FUN?"** Omega asked out of the blue, and Shadow felt a flare of happiness that Omega was prioritizing fun over winning just this once.

"I am," he replied, and he meant it.

 _"Found it!"_ came a triumphant call from several rooms over, and a minute later, Rouge sauntered into the room, holding something proudly over her head before setting it down by the television.

It was a menorah, old and covered in small beads of dried wax at the base.

"My aunt's," Rouge explained, and a chill ran through Shadow as he realized why it was with Rouge instead of her aunt.

 _You lost her,_ his mind said.

"Are you going to light it?" his mouth asked instead.

Rouge's smile faltered, taking on a more plastic quality. Her fingers reached out to touch the menorah. "No… I looked it up, and it's already the fifth day of Hanukkah. Not much point now if you ask me."

Shadow decided not to push it that day.

Nor did he ask why, when three days later, he and Omega came home after a mission from G.U.N. and found Rouge in front of the menorah, adorning it with nine candles. In her hand was a box of matches.

"It's the last day," she said, offering no further explanation, and no more was asked for.

Shadow and Omega watched in silence as Rouge lit a match, lighting the candle in the middle before shaking the match until it extinguished. They watched as she took the middle candle and, one by one, lit the eight other candles before replacing the ninth in its place.

The flames flickered delicately, dancing back and forth as the soft winds of breath pushed them, and as the light outside continued to fade and the room grew dark, the fire continued to burn, just like in the story Dr. Schwartz had told Shadow so many years ago.

"It's beautiful," he remarked absentmindedly.

"It is," Rouge gasped out, voice thick and wet, and when Shadow looked over to his side, he saw her blink a few tears out.

"Are you-" he started to ask, only to be forcefully cut off.

"I'm _not_ crying!" Rouge snapped, openly in tears and staring forward.

Shadow looked back at the menorah, taking a step to the side until their arms were touching. "You're right," he whispered. "My mistake."

From behind them, Omega pulled them both into an uncomfortable embrace, and for a while all three of them stood there, watching the candles burn and the wax drip as the sound of Rouge's shaky breaths filled their ears.

Shadow looked at the flames and remembered. He remembered Dr. Schwartz. He remembered his grandfather and his sister on the ARK. He knew Rouge was remembering her aunt, whom she had loved so much, and who had loved her in turn, enough to give her the menorah in front of them to remember her by.

They were all there, in their memories and in their hearts.

 _Thank you,_ Shadow thought as another drop of wax fell onto the base of the menorah.


	3. Chapter 3

Decorations were hit or miss with Shadow nowadays.

When he was young, growing up on the ARK where decorations were limited and less prioritized, a bit of tinsel or a string of lights had been breathtaking and amazing, something to inspire hope and joy and the feeling that something special was happening.

On the planet, where decorations were plastered just about everywhere he looked, the effect was lost and the practice seemed much more obnoxious than festive.

 _Decorating,_ on the other hand, still held a certain degree of fun.

Shadow genuinely enjoyed spending one of his rare days off in Club Rouge, decorating it from top to bottom with lights and plants and ornaments, even with Rouge's perfectionism driving her to make him redo entire sections and move everything around. It was mindless, busy work, and there was something that hit different about decorating a place himself, as opposed to seeing the garish finished product in other places.

They made their way back up to their home, and Shadow regarded their own space, devoid of decorations, save for a box of tree ornaments and Rouge's menorah, which she had decided to keep out for just a little while longer. The two mobians took a rest on the couch, watching a few episodes of Shadow's newest favorite anime until Omega came back home with a tree in tow.

The tree went by their fireplace, and Shadow prepared himself for the final stretch in his decorating marathon. Rouge opened up the box of ornaments as he and Omega plugged together the lights on the tree and tested to make sure it all worked. Once it was ready, Rouge started playing a holiday movie for background noise as the ornaments came out of the box one by one.

There were the generic glass and plastic balls, and a few candy canes as well, but some ornaments had stories behind them, which Rouge would tell, sometimes with fervor and a grin on her face, other times with a nostalgic sadness and the understanding that this was yet another piece of her family she had inherited. As Shadow hung these more sentimental ornaments on the branches, he wondered if he could buy or make a special one of his own.

Rouge herself took the final piece, the star for the top of the tree, and flew up to place it. She stayed in the air, admiring their work from above, and remarked, "I know it always looks like Christmas exploded on everything this time of year, but there's just something special about a tree."

And in spite of everything, Shadow had to agree. At the very least, there was something special about _their_ tree.

The three flopped down on the couch, with Omega observing the ending of the movie and remarking on its similarities with others in the genre, and Rouge eating some store-bought gingerbread cookies since none of them had the time nor the skill to bake any of their own, and Shadow looked again at their living room, devoid of decorations save for the tree and the menorah, both of which filled him with the warm feeling that he had once felt as a child on the space colony when December approached.

 _This is enough,_ he decided as he sunk back into the couch with his family and watched the credits roll. _This is just the right amount._


	4. Chapter 4

Few things could keep G.U.N. from calling Team Dark out on missions. Rouge was pretty sure that, if mandatory vacation hours and time off didn't exist, her team would be constantly out and about without so much as time for a coffee break in between assignments.

But there was one thing that not even G.U.N. had control over, and that was the power of Mother Nature.

Heavy overnight snowfall had resulted in blocked streets, damaged phone lines, and other issues all over Station Square, and after a few phone calls and emails were exchanged, it was decided that Team Dark's field missions could be transferred over to other agents living outside of the affected area, while they took some data analysis that could be done remotely.

Thanks to Omega, it was done in under an hour, and after a bite to eat, the three of them prepared to go outside to shovel the snow away from their door, driveway, and road.

Rouge saw her breath turn into steam and float into the air before she even opened the door, and the mass of white sparkling in the sun assaulted her eyes the very next moment. The bat shielded her eyes with her hand, blinking in an effort to readjust quickly, her training teaching her to keep her muscles taut and ready for attack as she struggled to regain her missing sense.

"Alright boys," she said in the meantime, pulling her coat more firmly around her shoulders, "looks like we have a lot of work to do."

" **I CAN FINISH IT ON MY OWN,"** Omega claimed.

"No weapons allowed," Rouge warned. "If there's any damage done to my club then you're fixing it on your own _and_ paying for it."

" **...I DEMAND ASSISTANCE FOR THE CURRENT OBJECTIVE."**

Rouge giggled. "Thought so."

All the same, the job went remarkably fast with the three of them working together. Omega's talon-like fingers proved very useful for picking away stubborn pieces of ice, and the heat generated by Shadow's skates helped clear out perimeters for areas that needed to be dug out. Now and again, Rouge would fly up and pick out a missed spot from the air, and before lunchtime had even hit, their work was finished.

"Great work team," Rouge praised, getting in response a nod from Shadow and a small hop from Omega that caused the ground to tremble.

They went to the park for lunch, none of them eager to run back inside and peel off their heavy winter attire, and sat on a bench, snacking on hotdogs and hot chocolate, or in Omega's case, drawing exceedingly precise pictures in the snow.

Rouge tilted her head back, trying to get to the final dregs of her drink, before setting the cup back down with a sigh. "I love snow, but I'd love it more if it wasn't so _cold."_

"Don't tell me a little cold's got you down!"

Two pairs of ears perked up, and three heads turned around to the source of the newest comment. A blue hedgehog stood behind their bench, flanked by a yellow fox and a pink hedgehog, and all three smiled at the other trio.

Rouge faced forward again, leaning back on the bench as Sonic stepped forward, bracing his arms on the back of the bench and leaning over to talk more easily. "It takes a lot more than a small chill to keep me down, Big Blue," Rouge returned.

"Good to hear." Sonic turned to the other occupant of the bench. "What about you, Shadow?"

"I'm not affected by this degree of temperature," Shadow replied in monotone, and Rouge rolled her eyes.

"We get it, darling. You're the 'Ultimate Lifeform'," she said, making her voice deep and gruff in a poor imitation of her friend.

Shadow barely had time to glare at her before Sonic spoke up again. "Great! In that case…"

A whoosh of winds and a blur of blue passed in front of them, and the next thing any of them knew, Sonic was standing right in front of them. "Think fast!" he quipped, pulling a snowball out from behind his back and crushing it right into Shadow's chest.

For one second, nothing happened.

The very next second, Shadow was on his feet, and he and Sonic were running all around the park, with the sound of Sonic's laughter coming from all sides. Rouge, still processing what had just happened, looked back behind her to see Amy and Tails with twin grins, also holding snowballs in their hands and challenge in their eyes.

And how could she refuse a challenge like that?

"Omega!" she called out, dodging Tails' snowball on her way over to the robot. "Cover me! It's war!"

" **UNDERSTOOD. UPDATING PRIMARY OBJECTIVE TO SNOW WARFARE."**

And warfare it was; Sonic was a wild card, appearing anywhere at any time to throw a snowball with remarkable accuracy, Tails took to the skies for aerial attacks, and Amy's brute strength was formidable enough for throwing, but when she used her hammer, she gained a ridiculous advantage in range.

It took everything Rouge had to ward Tails away from Shadow and Omega, especially once they had all come to the unfortunate conclusion that Omega had difficulty packing up snow without crushing the ball in his hands. Shadow worked double time to make enough snowballs for the both of them, and Omega threw them around with intense precision and power.

"Delete the word 'mercy' from your database," Shadow ordered as he passed a snowball to Omega's hand.

" **NEGATIVE."** The robot sent it flying the next moment, where it managed to hit Sonic square in the back. " **SUCH A WORD WAS NEVER IN MY VOCABULARY TO BEGIN WITH."**

"AUGH!" Sonic cried, dropping to his knees. "I'm hit! I… I'm not going to make it!"

"Sonic, no!" Tails landed next to his brother as the hedgehog dramatically fell onto his side. "Please! Say it ain't so!"

"I'm afraid so little buddy," Sonic rasped, gasping in pain for good measure. "It's all up to you now-"

Another snowball from Omega hit Tails in the arm the very next second, and after a second of consideration, he fell into the snow as well.

"Sonic… I can see the light…"

"Me too… It's calling for me…"

Both brothers let out overdone 'dying' noises as they went limp on the ground, and Team Dark watched it happen in confusion and in Rouge's case, amusement.

That is, until Amy stepped forward.

"Sonic! Tails! I swear I will avenge you!" she cried, before throwing a flurry of snowballs with such intensity that Rouge had to wonder if Amy was really that good of an actress or if she was committing to the bit just a little too much.

Their game continued for a very long while, during which Sonic 'died' two more times, until Rouge felt exhausted and flushed and freezing and soaked to the bone. She wasn't alone; both Amy and Tails seemed to be running out of steam, but unfortunately, Sonic, Shadow and Omega showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

"Rouge," Tails murmured, discreetly nodding up at the trees above them, where enormous piles of snow were still clinging onto the branches. The bat understood the plan at once, and grinned at the sly fox, holding out one hand.

"Truce?"

"Truce."

They shook on it.

"But how do we position them?" Rouge wondered until a giggle from behind gave her the answer. Amy passed them both by and gave them a wave.

"Leave that to me."

With that, Amy charged toward the other trio, screaming as she gave her final attack. Rouge and Tails jumped back into the sky, making it seem as though they were going to continue their aerial battle, but when Amy led the others underneath the tree, both of them darted over and kicked the branches, utterly smothering Sonic, Shadow and Omega in snow. Rouge held out a hand to Tails, and without even looking her way, he returned her hi-five.

Omega was the first to emerge from his snowy prison. " **TRAITOR,"** he accused as Rouge landed in front of him.

"Ouch, that's harsh Omega! Keep that up and I might just cry!"

All the same, Rouge had a bright smile on her face as she effortlessly pulled Omega out of the snow and helped clear out his joints, while Shadow and Sonic dug their way out of their freezing prison. Shadow emerged first, brushing the powder from his body, then paused and offered Sonic his hand. The other hedgehog looked surprised for a second before grinning and taking it, and Shadow helped pull him out and back into the open air.

"We can't have you dying again," Shadow deadpanned, making Rouge grin from ear to ear.

"Did you just make a joke?!" she accused playfully, hamming it up with a squeal as Shadow huffed and crossed his arms and Sonic began to laugh. "You did! You did, I heard it!"

"We've witnessed history today," Tails remarked in turn, making Sonic laugh harder and Shadow glare at the ground and kick away some snow.

After cleaning themselves up a little more, the group walked to the edge of the park together before Sonic and Tails decided that it was time to go home and warm up. Rouge waved them off, shivering as the heat of battle continued to leave her and the cold seeped in to fill its absence, but before she could say her goodbyes to Amy, the pink hedgehog was pushing an envelope into her hands.

"It's an invitation to my holiday party next weekend! It's a potluck kind of thing, so if you can bring some snacks or desserts that would be great. Sonic and Tails are coming, and I invited Knuckles and Silver too. I also tried Blaze, but I haven't heard back from her."

Rouge regarded the envelope in interest. _A holiday party?_

"If you can't come because of work, it's okay, really!" Amy continued, locking her fingers together in an attempt to warm them up. "I tried inviting the Chaotix but they're abroad and can't make it, so-"

"We'll be there," Rouge decided. "I'll make sure of it."

Amy smiled wide, her eyes closing in happiness. "Great! All the little details are on the note inside, so I guess I'll see you then!" The girl waved over her shoulder as she started heading home. "And thanks for today, it was a lot of fun!"

"No problem at all, sweetheart!" Rouge called after her before turning over to her bedraggled team with a glint in her eye. "Sounds like we have a few more phone calls to make before the day is out, hm?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Think we should have gone for ugly matching sweaters?" Rouge joked as she packed up the last of the cookies.

"No," Shadow responded immediately and forcefully, much to her amusement. "I would never live down that kind of humiliation, and you would just complain the whole time."

"Hey, come on now," she coaxed, prodding Shadow's arm and causing him to shake her off, "you're the Ultimate Lifeform and I can pull anything off. We could make it work."

Shadow stared at her with the driest look she had ever seen. "If I didn't know you any better, I might think you were serious."

Rouge scoffed, tapping Shadow on the shoulder. "Party pooper," she teased, disappointed that he knew how to read her so well by this point. "But I guess we don't have any ugly matching sweaters to begin with."

"You're ridiculous."

Rouge ruffled Shadow's spines, much to his displeasure. "Someone on this team has to know what fun is."

It was the night of Amy's party, and after a lot of negotiations, string-pulling, and calling in old owed favors, Rouge had managed to clear up all three of their schedules for that day. Unfortunately, their attempts at making something for the potluck had ended in foul-smelling, half-burnt disaster, so the remainder of their store-bought cookies and leftover gelt would have to suffice. It made Rouge's stomach turn when she imagined eating nothing but sugar all evening, but Shadow lived off of junk food. At least he would be happy with that and leave any fruit plates or vegetables with ranch dip for her to snack on.

Omega reentered the room, having checked his power supply and double-checking to make sure he was as unarmed as they could make him 一 "This is a party, Omega, and _I swear_ if you go trigger-happy in someone else's house, I'm taking away whichever weapon you use and not giving it back." 一 and the trio was ready to make their way over.

" **FINAL VARIABLE,"** Omega said, before wrapping a string of golden tinsel around his head and tying it in the back like a headband. " **HOW DO I LOOK?"**

"Fantastic, honey!"

"...Odd."

" **ACCEPTABLE,"** Omega decided, and he led them out the door with that.

* * *

Amy's party was a relaxed affair, a fact that soothed Rouge's worries about Shadow getting overwhelmed or Omega getting overexcited. She sat back in her chair, sipping at her water 一 she would have preferred something that would give her more of a buzz, but Amy still wasn't old enough to legally buy or drink alcohol and Rouge wasn't there to turn the party into something wilder than it should be 一 and sighed. When did she get so _responsible?_

The wildest thing at this party was 一 aside from the open music queue featuring a myriad of wacky, intense, and sometimes just genuinely good songs 一 the sprig of mistletoe that Amy had left hanging over one of the doorways. She had craftily hung it by the food table, in an area where people would take a moment to look around for somewhere to sit down and eat, and already Rouge had seen multiple people get caught unawares under it, exchanging brief, casual, sometimes awkward kisses before splitting apart.

And right then, Shadow and Knuckles were openly arguing right below it.

"Think they've noticed it yet?"

Rouge glanced to the side; Sonic had taken a seat next to her, biting into one of the store-bought cookies her team had brought along.

"Maybe," she said with a sigh. "Either they haven't, or at least Shadow has and now he's trying to make sure Knuckles doesn't."

Sonic snorted. "If Knuckles saw it, I think he'd be a lot more red in the face than he is now," he remarked, causing Rouge to laugh softly behind her hand.

They watched the pair continue to bicker for a while until Sonic nudged her with his elbow. "I think it's time for an intervention."

Rouge smirked at him. "I'll take Knuckles if you take Shadow."

A grin flashed back in return. "Deal."

With that, the pair walked over to the arguing duo, each pulling their assigned charge to the side and planting a kiss on their cheek.

The effect was instantaneous for Rouge; Knuckles stumbled backwards, stuttering nonsense with wide eyes, whereas Shadow's mouth pressed into a thin line while Sonic laughed. Knuckles recovered first, pointing between Sonic and Rouge.

"Wh-What was that about?!"

Sonic pointed upward while Rouge giggled. "You two were taking so long to notice where you were standing. Can you blame us for moving things along?"

Knuckles looked seconds away from exploding from embarrassment. "Well… Well now you two are under it!" he accused triumphantly, clenching his fists at his sides, and, well, he wasn't wrong. Now Sonic and Rouge were plainly below the cluster of dark leaves and white berries.

The two looked at each other, shrugged, and to Knuckles' mortification, easily kissed each other on both cheeks without a second thought.

"There," Sonic said, easy as a breeze. "Now it's your turn."

"It's tradition," Rouge encouraged, and if looks could kill, she and Sonic would have been dead twice over.

Shadow and Knuckles turned to each other, both still on edge from their argument, but they obediently kissed each other on the cheek as well before turning away from each other. Rouge slid between them both, slinging an arm over each of them as she led them away from the troublemaking plant. "Okay now, let's leave some for the others too," she coaxed, causing Knuckles to splutter again and Shadow to huff in irritation.

Rouge grinned. My, how she loved her friends…

She let go of the boys once she passed her chair from before, her water cup sitting there unattended, and picked it up, swirling it around a few times before pouring it into a nearby ficus. She had no doubt in her mind that it was still safe to drink, but old habits died hard.

Her eyes scanned the room again, from Sonic who was now chatting with Silver, to Amy who was fervently explaining something to Omega, to Tails who was adding yet another song to their fifty-something music queue. Her lips quirked into a smile as she watched everyone have a nice time.

_Absolutely worth every last second of negotiations with her bosses._

A flare of light swelled outside the window, catching her eye, and as it died down, Rouge could see a figure standing outside in the snow, shivering in the cold as they looked over to the house.

Was that-

"BLAZE!"

The next thing the bat saw was Silver flinging open the door with his powers and running outside to capture the purple cat in a tight hug, his tail wagging so fast that it was almost invisible, utterly ecstatic at seeing his best friend again. Amy followed him, ushering the princess out of the cold and into her home, also grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm sorry for never responding to your invitation," Blaze said to Amy once the door was closed behind her. "There's been a lot to handle in the Sol Dimension and I never got a chance to break away to answer. In fact…" Blaze cleared her throat, looking to the side. "I suppose I'm technically not supposed to be here right now, but I saw a chance to take the rest of my night off and… well… Here I am."

"And we're so glad to see you!" Amy insisted, taking Blaze's coat to hang it up.

"You're here now, and that's what counts," Silver agreed, already pulling her into another hug, which the cat returned with a soft smile on her face.

In no time at all, the party was back to normal, with Blaze mingling and eating and dancing with the rest of them. Rouge stopped by the snack table, taking a few apple slices, and her heart warmed up as she watched Omega review one of Tails' blueprints, Sonic tell a joke that somehow had the very proper Blaze let out a peal of uncontrolled laughter, Amy's half-successful attempts to teach Silver and Knuckles the latest meme dances, and over in the corner, Shadow watched everyone with warmer eyes than she was used to seeing.

Rouge paused in her munching, but ultimately made the decision to go join him, and even though there was no mistletoe hanging above them, she pressed her lips to his cheek.

"Hmph," Shadow huffed, but she saw a ghost of a smile on his face. "You're still ridiculous."

Rouge rolled her eyes, wrapping one arm around him in a side-hug. "Happy holidays to you too, Mr. Grumpy."

Shadow's frown reappeared, sending a stab of guilt through Rouge, but before she could say anything to lighten the mood again, he said, "I think… for the first time in a long time, I am having happy holidays." His gaze roamed around the room, around their friends, his eyes holding the softest look she had ever seen in them.

Rouge squeezed his shoulder and replied, "Me too."

_And she meant it._


End file.
